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Hello- I'm new to this forum after lurking for a few weeks. I'm following the threads on a lot of DP's since I'm interesting in upgrading my present setup & really appreciate all the in depth info & opinions of the group members. Anyway, on to the point:

I had a chance to try out both the 330 & 350 at a local GC yesterday. The 350 was placed 1 foot over the 330 so direct comparisons were easy. As expected the 350 was superior in sample set, keyboard feel, almost every aspect exept one...... the sound!!!!!?!?!?

At this point I'm putting the blame on the internal amplification & speaker system. The 350 was really lacking in low end response. It was obvious in the pianos but really became obvious when trying out the basses. Also it wasn't very loud, even when turned all the way up. Luckily it was a relatively quiet area so I wasn't having to try to hear over the 13 year olds trying out the newest Marshall stack or the 14 year old budding Buddy Riches. It would get to a fairly loud level if playing at home but still not all that loud. I'm wondering if anyone else has gotten to audition both of them side by side & if they concur or (hopefully) refute my observation. I'm hoping maybe they just had a defective unit & the sound on the 350 is superior in all the areas, amplification included. I eagerly await your replies & thanks in advance

Hello- I'm new to this forum after lurking for a few weeks. I'm following the threads on a lot of DP's since I'm interesting in upgrading my present setup & really appreciate all the in depth info & opinions of the group members. Anyway, on to the point:

I had a chance to try out both the 330 & 350 at a local GC yesterday. The 350 was placed 1 foot over the 330 so direct comparisons were easy. As expected the 350 was superior in sample set, keyboard feel, almost every aspect exept one...... the sound!!!!!?!?!?At this point I'm putting the blame on the internal amplification & speaker system. The 350 was really lacking in low end response. It was obvious in the pianos but really became obvious when trying out the basses. Also it wasn't very loud, even when turned all the way up. Luckily it was a relatively quiet area so I wasn't having to try to hear over the 13 year olds trying out the newest Marshall stack or the 14 year old budding Buddy Riches. It would get to a fairly loud level if playing at home but still not all that loud. I'm wondering if anyone else has gotten to audition both of them side by side & if they concur or (hopefully) refute my observation. I'm hoping maybe they just had a defective unit & the sound on the 350 is superior in all the areas, amplification included. I eagerly await your replies & thanks in advance

Ben

To be honest I haven't compared them side by side since I haven't found a place that had both in stock at the same time. It seems around here they want to sell out of the 330 before switching to the 350. But just so you can tell if you had a defective one I did stumble across a demo of one in a sales tore that was just on mic with the salesman talking and it wasn't like it was even very close to him or the board. I found them to be plenty loud enough for use at home. Go here http://www.pianocenter.com/videos/46350.wmv and see what you think. The salesman isn't obviously screaming but he certainly is projecting his voice and the piano holds its own. At certain times the mic gets close to him so you can tell he has a loud voice and the piano is quite loud enough for me. Also bare in mind I was told they were designed to be put against a wall on their stand for home use and the sound bounces back at you from the rear speakers, which this recording was done from the front.

Note the video opens in Window's Media Player. It is not a YouTube. I had to give my computer permission to play it.I hope this helps.BillTheSlink

Edited by BillTheSlink (11/05/1212:55 PM)

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Currently I am without a piano, but when I get mine back I will be working on "The Complete Piano Player", as well as Neely's "How to Play from a Fake Book. I am spending my time working on theory and learning how to construct chords currently.

Thanks for the reply Bill. Yeah, the guy working at GC was just as surprised as I myself that they actually had both models. This area isn't exactly keyboard heaven as far as stores go (Lancaster, PA). I had gone in looking for the 350 plus the Korg Krome which they didn't have. The 330 was on its own stand & the 350 was about a foot above it on one of those wall racks, so it was sitting at an angle plus, as I recall, there is some sort of padded cloth material on the wall itself. That may have effected the overall sound. I had downloaded the manual last night to see if there was some internal volume setting in addition to the volume knob but found none. There is a song volume setting but I kind of doubt that would effect the overall volume. I'm at work now so will have to wait until this evening to look at the video. Thanks again.

@BenwaB3Try YouTube and look up "pianomanchuck" he does a real good side by side of the 330/350 along with some videos showing all the voices, i'm curious since you had them both in front of you what your thoughts are on the keybed, especially the feel of the black keys on the 350 it seems to come up alot in these threads and im just wondering is it THAT noticeably different? Hoping to put my hands on one soon.Thx, Duke

Hi, at the moment I have the 350 and am playing it a little more than the PX-130 and Yamaha P-105 although I love all three.

It is important to note that some of the more mellow sounds are volume limited (mellow,dolce,classic). They still sound excellent but with headphones it is like as good or better than my favorite item of all time the SG Rack.

I really enjoy the touch of it as well. My only complaint is in another thread and others had the same issue and it is not a concern to most.

Sometimes I think my PX-130 might even be a little louder. Go figure. I'll be using that one as my road board.

Did you notice the spacing of the keys on the 350 when you played it? How was it.

Thanks for the further replies. The action is, to me anyway, better than the 330. When checking out DP's I always turn the volume completely down & try some fast fingering on the keys. The 350 felt more solid than the 330, which some times felt a little too loose & light. It seemed that all the voices had a lower volume than the 330, plus the lack of bass response which probably contributes a lot to the impression of overall volume. I looked in the manual to see if there is a master eq setting but didn't see one (allthough I haven't gotten to read the manual in depth). I didn't notice anything about the black keys but I only had time to do a fairly quick tryout. I won't have time to get back to GC until next Sunday but will pay more attention to that. Thanks again.

Did just check out the video link from Bill's post & had seen the Pianoman Chuck video from Duke's reply last week. There is a big difference in the sound from the inernal speakers, which is to be expected, & the amplified sound from Pianoman Chuck's video. In the latter the 350 definitely sounds better. That's what makes me wonder if it was a defective unit at GC. I hope that's the case. It would be a real shame if they improved everything but then give you the end result of an inferior product because of the speakers & amplification. If anything it should be an improvement in that area also.

It would be a real shame if they improved everything but then give you the end result of an inferior product because of the speakers & amplification. If anything it should be an improvement in that area also.

The thing is for many of us the internal amplification is a minor issue at best. Mine will almost always be run either through external amplification or phones.

The internal amplification is/isn't an issue for me. If I were to take it out as a 2nd keyboard for live performance it should hold its own a lot better. When you just want to play at home though there's nothing like the convenience of sitting down, hitting one on/off switch & you're ready to go. And at least 95% of its use would be at home for my situation. The next time I get to GC I'll take a pair of phones & compare the 350 w/ the 330 through them. Thanks for the reply.

Hi, at the moment I have the 350 and am playing it a little more than the PX-130 and Yamaha P-105 although I love all three.

It is important to note that some of the more mellow sounds are volume limited (mellow,dolce,classic). They still sound excellent but with headphones it is like as good or better than my favorite item of all time the SG Rack.

I really enjoy the touch of it as well. My only complaint is in another thread and others had the same issue and it is not a concern to most.

Sometimes I think my PX-130 might even be a little louder. Go figure. I'll be using that one as my road board.

Did you notice the spacing of the keys on the 350 when you played it? How was it.

Hey! Regarding the action, how does the PX 350 actions feel compared to P105 GHS?

Hey! Regarding the action, how does the PX 350 actions feel compared to P105 GHS?

It's always subjective, but I think the PX350 feels a lot better than the GHS (or the 350's 330 predecessor). I actually think it feels better than anything else short of the $2k range... I like it better than any Yamaha until you get to the CP5. I'm not as convinced about the sound, though it does sound better than the 330.

I'm really hoping for an update to the PX-3 at winter NAMM. I like my MOX8 a lot but it really is kind of a pain setting up in my studio only to remove it 2-3 days later for gig. And my PX-330 seems easier to transport and a little less bulky. I'm thinking I really would like to replace the PX-330 with something a little more gig friendly with better EP's as well as AP.

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A long long time ago, I can still rememberHow that music used to make me smile....

I've just upgraded to the PX350 from a PX330.I love both pianos but the 350 is a great upgrade.I really like the Ivory feel and the general feel of the key bed.I would have liked to have seen illuminated markers for the buttons because once again for a stage piano its ridiculous not being able to see the buttons or at least which ones are which ?The sound for me isn't so good either through the on board speakers although the bass response is better it seems a little off ?However I too tend to play it through an external Peavey KB60 and both pianos sound fab.Good see Casio now have a USB port for loading/saving material via a pen and you can now use Wav backing tracks, just a pity they didn't adopt MP3 ? Only unpacked it tonight but so far so good.

Always remember too for home use you can get some 2.1 computer speakers. When someone told me that I was like, "Yeah right...", but the other day I went to Best Buy and had the salesman show me some in the 50.00 range on sale. All I can say was I am shocked. I couldn't believe you could get that kind of sound for that price. The low end was rich and high end crisp. I think they were Logitchs but can't sware to that. Everyone he showed me sounded good even the real cheap set, but it was obvious the wires would break and the switch was cheesy.

_________________________
Currently I am without a piano, but when I get mine back I will be working on "The Complete Piano Player", as well as Neely's "How to Play from a Fake Book. I am spending my time working on theory and learning how to construct chords currently.

Ben, I'm pretty sure you have a defective unit. My own criticism of the 350 is that the sounds seem too loud and easily produce vibration and distortion on the unit. A choir I run has a PX-320 and the sound is far better balance - you really have to pound it before the internal speakers raise the white flag. On the 350, it doesn't take much at all.

That said, I bought mine mainly to use as a keybed with my Kronos 61, so that's not so much of an issue. And I agree with Scott's remarks about the keybed - you have to spend a serious amount of money (and accept a whack more weight) before it gets much better than this.

My only "complaint", and it wouldn't be applicable to most people, is when attached to the matching stand it seems to be about an inch lower to the top of the keys than on other keyboards I looked at. Maybe it is more likely 3/4". Anyway with me being unusually large it wasn't as comfortable even on the low setting on the X-type bench. I refuse though to plan on putting the thing on some stage stand as that would look real goofy in my living room, even if the lady of the house were to agree to it (which isn't going to happen in a million years) and I certainly wouldn't put it on some rickety X stand to wobble as you play on either end or beat your legs on. Besides that in their wisdom Casio decided to sell the pedal unit made on a crossbar that goes on the stand, not a separate lyre. No doubt a cause to sell more stands to those who want the three pedal setup, but sneaky none the less.

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Currently I am without a piano, but when I get mine back I will be working on "The Complete Piano Player", as well as Neely's "How to Play from a Fake Book. I am spending my time working on theory and learning how to construct chords currently.

My only "complaint", and it wouldn't be applicable to most people, is when attached to the matching stand it seems to be about an inch lower to the top of the keys than on other keyboards I looked at. Maybe it is more likely 3/4". Anyway with me being unusually large it wasn't as comfortable even on the low setting on the X-type bench. I refuse though to plan on putting the thing on some stage stand as that would look real goofy in my living room, even if the lady of the house were to agree to it (which isn't going to happen in a million years) and I certainly wouldn't put it on some rickety X stand to wobble as you play on either end or beat your legs on. Besides that in their wisdom Casio decided to sell the pedal unit made on a crossbar that goes on the stand, not a separate lyre. No doubt a cause to sell more stands to those who want the three pedal setup, but sneaky none the less.

Yamaha did the same think with their pedal unit; it must be attached to the stand.

I went back to GC today & tried both models through headphones. Under those conditions the 350 sounded better all around than the 330. Going back to the internal speakers the same lack of low end response was still there. Right before leaving though I remembered reading about having the 350 level as opposed to the angle it was on using the wall brackets (I thought that was on this thread but have read back through it 4 times w/o finding that statement). As soon as I held the front end up so the unit was level it sounded a lot better. It seemed the 330 still had just a tiny touch more bass response but I'll write that off to still being influenced by my bias from comparing them before. Now unfortunately I'm back to being in an indecisive phase. I've been considering the Kawai MP6 for quite awhile & would always come back to leaning that way after checking out other options. It seems every time I finally make a decision something else comes up to send me off in that direction for awhile. The bad bass response in the 350 had finally steered me back to the MP6 until today. Of course the MP6 doesn't have internal speakers & is close to twice as expensive but it has a lot of features & an internal effects section. If the 350 had effects (other than the reverb & chorus) I would definitely go that way. But when pulling up a Rhodes or Wurli sound you really want that tape echo effect from years gone by or stereo tremolo on the Rhodes.. The ES7 has that plus internal speakers but that's getting even more pricey. I did go to a piano store in Westchester, PA last week that has the ES7 & another store today in Reading, PA today that has Kawai DP's. They don't have have the ES7 or MP6 but I had talked to someone at Kawai USA last week & he told me what models share the same action as the MP6. I kinda like that action, maybe even better than the 350. Decisions, decisions. I'm thankful though that there are so many good options to choose from. If all our problems were only that pleasant!!

Kind of in the same situation after having played the Casios 330, 150 and 750 (350 pretty much nowhere available at the moment in central Europe it seems). I thought the 350 would put an end to my search but not sure anymore.Now if you need proper FX, particularly for EPs, something like the Kawai or a Roland are definitively more suited. I use a Nord Stage 2 for that which hopefully will be driven by a sweet action 88 key board.But to the point, while I liked the new Piaqno sound on the 750, I did not like the new Ivory finish too much, to me it is too much structured, feels odd. IN fact, I almost preferred the 330 over the new one. SO I am even considering getting a 33 saving around 200 Euros, but then I don't want to miss out some of the new features. Or in which sense exactly did you think the 350 sounded/felt like a great improvement over the 330?IN any case, good luck with your decision, not an easy one ;-)!

I tried both models, and found that the 350's action feels a little heavier than the 330's. in the end, it all comes up to how heavy a touch you're used to, as it should be your main focus.Also, if I were you, I personally wouldn't go with the newer model just yet. My dealer told me some customers already returned their 350s because of defective units. I always allow some time before buying any new product.

My preferences lean a little more towards a heavier action so that's why I preferred the action on the 350. For those preferring a lighter touch the 330 would be the way to go. As said before, I liked the Kawai ES-7 a lot too but that's getting up around the $2,000US range. They had it at least 5 or 6 feet away from a wall so I wasn't able to see how catching wall reflections would influence the sound but do remember they had a setting for whether you were or weren't next to a wall. Back to the Casios - as for the sounds themselves the 350 just seemed to have more "depth" than the 330 but with 3 times the sample memory it should. If it makes any difference the headphone jacks on the 350 are 1/4" as compared to 1/8" on the 330 (at least I think it's that way instead of the other way around). Hope this helps. Thanks.

Hmm, the speakers seem exactly the same between the 330 and 350 (two towards, two towards the audiance (the bigger ones, might explain while standing up you hear more.I finally went for the 330 mainly since I prefer a tad lighter action and find the ivory imitation too much. Certainly, the sound is not the best and behind the 350 but I get by, and as a MIDI controller anyways.Both models are great pianos and amazing bang for the buck.